Users of wireless and mobile networking technologies are increasingly using their mobile devices to send and receive data as well as communicate. With increased data communications on wireless networks the strain on the limited bandwidth and system resources that are available for wireless telecommunications is also increasing. To handle the increasing amount of wireless services to an increasing numbers of users, an efficient use of the available radio network resources has become important.
To handle the increasing amount of wireless services to an increasing numbers of users, efficient use of the available radio network resources has become important. Device to device (D2D) communications allows mobile users to directly communicate with each other, thereby reducing the load on the radio network resources. The D2D communication can occur when closely located devices are enabled to communicate with each other directly instead of using a conventional communications links such as a Wi-Fi or cellular communications system. Some types of D2D communications are enhanced by cellular communication systems, thereby requiring the D2D communications device to be within range of a cellular communications system, such as an enhanced node B (eNB).
One way to increase efficiency and better resource management of the D2D communications system and reduce interference between the D2D communications system and the cellular communications system is to synchronize the D2D communications with the cellular network.
Reference will now be made to the exemplary embodiments illustrated, and specific language will be used herein to describe the same. It will nevertheless be understood that no limitation of the scope of the invention is thereby intended.